“What should I do?” Typhon asks, his wings vibrating with concern over the limp woman cradled against his softening cock. He slithers more of his snake heads around her body, cradling her gently. Nemea is knocked out, but her breathing is steady and deep.
I suppress a chuckle, and he squints at me with one big dragon eye and a dozen or so smaller ones. “She’s fine, brother,” I assure him. “Just exhausted. Help me clean her up and I’ll put her to bed.”
It takes only a small surge of chaos magic to pull every last trace of my brother’s semen off Nemea’s skin. I leave behind what still lingers between her thighs—she might want a reminder, and I don’t want to be that invasive.
Then he relinquishes her to me. Cradled in my arms, she is the picture of peace and contentment. That she can feel so comfortable here as to let her guard down tugs at my heart in a way I’ve never experienced. After a moment, I realize both my brother and I are still gazing adoringly at her.
Typhon heaves a long breath that ruffles my hair and lies down in the shallow water, folding his wings against his back. He’s still looking at her with all two hundred eyes. “Is she real?” he says, his question tinged with awe.
“She is very real. And she’s ours.”
“I felt her power while she pleasured me. She used it on me. It’s what made me come at the end. I wonder if she could give me enough all at once to allow me to shift.”
I lift my eyebrows and look at him. He still stares at her, such hope filling his eyes, the effect magnified one hundred times. My heart clenches for my little brother, created in a jealous fit by Chaos to try to win a woman—one who proceeded to breed with Fate to create the dragon race. After the rejection, Chaos sent Typhon to the depths of my darkest dungeon because the sight of him was too much a signal of his failure to mate the Mother Dragon. Erika’s assessment of Alcides was right, but he is far from the only one with daddy issues among my guards.
But Typhon is still a dragon at heart, and since all dragons can shift into a human form, that ability is all he’s wished for since he first met Campe and learned what she can do. The problem is his size; he’s capable of magic similar to mine—every one of his heads can emit a blast of chaos destructive enough to raze entire cities—but the power only flows through him. It needs to live within him long enough for him to alter his own shape.
“Perhaps, brother. If she is truly bound to us as a soul mate would be, she may be able to help you. I think her willingness to drink that tells us she is close.” I gesture to the goblet one of his snakes still holds aloft a few feet away. “Why don’t you send that to my quarters for her when she wakes up?”
He aims one of his small heads at the goblet and opens its mouth. A dark violet vortex opens in front of it, and the goblet disappears. When the snake closes its mouth, I frown.
“Typhon, what happened to your head?”
“Which one?”
I’m staring at the one he just used to open the vortex, which I’m almost positive is the same one that was barely able to hold itself up yesterday. I study the others, but they all look whole and healthy. This one looks like all the rest.
“Did you regain your strength in the injured one overnight?”
He tilts his central head down, peering into the eyes of the snake in question. His tail swishes in excitement and his wings quiver against his back.
“No, it was still weak just this morning. Until she came. Until she came, brother. I could feel her power every time she climaxed. Taste it when it flowed into me, even when she wasn’t giving it to me. Does that mean she healed me?”
I bark out a laugh, then clamp my mouth shut when Nemea stirs, her head shifting against my shoulder. But she doesn’t wake.
“I think she must have, whether she intended it or not. She is a wonder, isn’t she? We’ll need to help her hone her power, strengthen it. We’re going to need her to take down the Titans. We have six days. Will you help train her while I am away?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
“Now go rest. You must be tired after all that too.”
“I am invigorated. I might go fly a bit; I have been resting long enough. It will feel good to get back to work.”
He stretches his wings and lifts his central head high. All the smaller heads twist and writhe in excitement. His enthusiasm is infectious, but my own excitement doesn’t last long when we part ways at the cavern’s wide opening. He lifts into the air, enormous wings carrying him high into the shimmering sky above and out over the prison towers. When I resume my climb to my quarters, the dread sinks deep into my gut.
I have to meet him next. To think I was more afraid of meeting Fate than my own sire. Fate’s request in exchange for their half of the key was not ideal, but after realizing what Fate really desires, I’m less concerned about the consequences. Besides, their intentions brought Nemea to me.
Chaos, however, will only ask for one thing, and it’s the one thing I won’t want to give.
I stew on this until I reach my room and lay her down on the bed. The prison’s magic—my magic—automatically summons a fresh cover that slides up over her, replacing the missing one. On the table beside the bed rests the goblet filled to the brim with the cocktail of semen we saved from her adventure. That she even wants it suggests she’s come to a deeper understanding of the magic at work here. Imbibing the mixture will bind her even closer with those of us who contributed.
It’s strange to me that among all the higher races, only the Nymphaea still observe that particular custom. But then they glean more from bodily fluids than the other races, save for primordials and gods.
No wonder Chrysaor, Cerberus, and Campe all looked so dejected when I sent them away. They will have to wait their turns. Alcides will come to her in his own time.
I should return to Erika and get the next part of our quest over with. But watching Nemea sleep has me frozen. She’s snoring softly, her veins faintly pulsing with inner light. Her octopus tattoo shimmers with its own glow, one of the tentacles that curls around her upper arm seeming to writhe and curl possessively around her biceps. I tilt my head, watching it, but it goes still.
I envy the creature for its proximity to her, and in a rare fit of impulsivity, I strip down to my skin, then climb into bed beside her. Slipping carefully beneath the covers, I slide close and drift my arm across her belly. She emits a soft sigh and rolls onto her side, scooting back against me. Her soft, round ass presses right against my cock, and I freeze, heart pounding as arousal makes it perk up.
I curse myself for stripping entirely. This wasn’t what I wanted. I merely desired contact. But it only takes a minor output of power to cover my hips in a pair of briefs, securing my errant cock away from Nemea’s perfect ass.
I remain propped on one elbow, staring down at her for several moments, still not quite trusting my good fortune. I don’t even realize her breathing rhythm has changed until she lets out a sigh.
“Vesh, will you just lie down and hold me already? Quit staring like a creep.”
I blink, then can’t suppress a laugh. “Does it bother you that I’m so enthralled by your very presence?”
“You act like you don’t even know how to snuggle. I pity the poor women you’ve slept with in the past.”
“I don’t sleep, so I’ve never actually slept with a woman before,” I admit.
Her comment tugs at some part of me who has longed for this very moment without realizing it. I lift my free hand and drift my fingertips over her temple, hooking her hair behind her ear. She sighs, and her eyelids flutter open as she turns her head just enough to give me a sidelong look.
She frowns. “Then why do you have a bed? Or is this just for fucking?”
“This bed has only existed since you arrived.”
She swallows as she absorbs this information, and we regard each other in silence for a moment. Then she says, “Am I the first woman you’ve ever brought back here?”
“You’re the only woman I’ve ever allowed inside me who wasn’t destined for a locked cell or pit. And if you’re curious about whom I fuck and where, I’ve always restricted that kind of fun to whatever brothel I found the woman at. In recent years, it happens at the casino.”
She frowns. “The Pandemonium. You still work there even though you’re responsible for all of this?” Her gaze flits around the room, but her look encompasses all of the prison.
“I don’t really have a choice. Chaos is my master, so my guards and I do his bidding. Even if it means keeping the peace at a modern gambling den in the mortal world.”
“But yesterday you said he already knew about me, so you were taking me here to protect me from him. You’re defying his wishes, aren’t you? So you do have a choice.”
“I don’t make a habit of defying him, but you’re right. I’m not technically compelled to do what he says. My very nature wouldn’t allow it. But to defy him can be dangerous. If he learns I have you, it won’t go well.”
“Would he hurt you?” she asks, her voice tight with worry.
I’m struck by her concern and give her a slight smile. “He can cause me pain, yes, but it would hurt far worse to lose you now that I’ve found you, Nemea. I’m willing to risk it.”
A million questions fill her gaze, and she chews over them for another moment before coming to some personal conclusion, then sighing and turning away without asking anything more. She pushes her butt back again and grabs my wrist, placing my hand over her bare breast. She’s warm and soft, and all I want to do is sink into her. My life is cold and hard on good days, but it needs to be; I am the very embodiment of justice and condemnation. I’m not even sure I know how to be tender, but something about her compels me to try.
“Well, this is how snuggling works. You hold me, and we sleep like this. Or I sleep, since you don’t, but we just… exist… together… touching.” She drawls out each word, her voice growing fainter before her breathing slows again as she drifts off.
“We will do more than merely exist together, Nemea,” I whisper, then dip my head to press a kiss against the dark ink covering her shoulder. This time I’m positive I see movement. Curious, I pull the covers back until the side of her body is revealed, along with the face of the octopus. Big, dark eyes with horizontal slits stare up at me, watchful and cautious. I chuckle.
“You don’t sleep either, do you, friend? Well, between the two of us, we can watch over her always.”